1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to scouring articles formed of lofty, low-density, nonwoven abrasive product, and, more specifically, to a novel scouring ball formed of slit segments of such nonwoven abrasive product fastened together under compression at their centers.
2. Prior Art
The use of lofty, fibrous, nonwoven abrasive products for scouring pots and pans is well known. These products are typically lofty, nonwoven open mats formed from randomly disposed crimped staple fibers which are bonded at points where they intersect and contact each other with a binder which contains abrasive. One highly commercially successful embodiment of such a pad is sold under the trade designation "Scothch-Brite" by the 3M Company of St. Paul, Minn.
Lofty, nonwoven abrasive pads can be prepared by the method disclosed by Hoover et al (U.S. Pat. No. 2,958,593). These pads are especially suited for pot and pan scouring because of their ability under normal conditions to be used for relatively long periods of time without clogging or filling. After use, they can be readily cleaned upon simple flushing with water, dried and left for substantial periods of time, and then reused.
While these pads are available in any of a variety of shapes, e.g., rectangular, circular, dumb-bell and trapezoidal, they are generally planar, i.e., of uniform thickness. There has been expressed a desire by the consumer for a more bulky nonwoven abrasive product that would substantially completely fill the hand of the user. While certain references disclose forming cleaning and/or scouring articles from coiled segments or collected segments of cleaning materials such as segments of foam material, none has been completely satisfactory.
For example, Visman et al (U.S. Pat. No. 3,204,277) discloses a cleaning device made of segments of artificial sponge material cut in the form of a flower and stacked together under compression fastened at the end of an elongate handle to form a cleaning device which lacks the desired bulk that is obtained by the cleaning pad of the present invention. Similarly, Gesell et al (U.S. Pat. No. 2,732,574) discloses a combined brush and mop which employs unslit segments of sponge material fastened at their centers under compression to form a ball-shaped mopping element. Gesell et al's method would not, however, be particularly suited for forming a conformable ball of lofty, nonwoven abrasive product since it would cause severe buckling of segments of such product.
Steinmetz et al (U.S. Pat. No. 2,290,216) discloses a dishmop formed by slitting an elongate strip of sponge rubber material to provide equally spaced slits perpendicular to the long axis, rolling the slit strip on its short side and compressing and constricting mid-section of the resultant spriral in an appropriate element to cause the slits to be deployed as an array thereby providing a mop head with a certain degree of bulk. Matthews, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 878,701, filed Feb. 17, 1978, assigned to the assignee of the present application, discloses dumbbell shaped segments of perforated nonwoven abrasive product fastened together at their small portions to form a ball-shaped array unlike the scouring ball of the present invention which employs slit segments of nonwoven abrasive material fastened at their mid points.